Kazakhstan
Dying for Oil
Kazakhstan is the world's 13th-largest oil producer, and hydrocarbons fund nearly half its national budget. In the steppe villages above the Tengiz and Kashagan fields, residents describe respiratory illness, sudden deaths, falsified air quality data and entire towns being rebuilt elsewhere to escape the smell.
Land of Copper
Kazakhstan is positioning itself as a key player in the global green energy transition, thanks to its abundance of minerals. Yet for residents of the town of Zhezkazgan, shaped by copper mining for over a century, that might not mean improvements in well-being or the local environment.
Kazakhstan’s Bloody January
In times of upheaval, art can serve the dual function of documenting events and shaping social values. With its authoritarian targeting of communications networks, Kazakhstan’s government tried to block both processes. It failed.